moved to Missouri Valley, where he established the First National Bank of that place. He was connected with financial interests there for about nine years but disposed of his interest in the bank in 1890 and returned to Nevada. In early life before entering banking circles he had engaged in merchandising and from time to time as opportunity offered he made extensive and judicious investment in real estate, becoming the owner of nine hundred and sixty acres of rich and valuable land adjoining the corporation limits of Nevada on the west. To the development and improvement of the property he gave his personal supervision. He was a very successful man, his business judgment being sound, his sagacity keen and his enterprise unfaltering. His labors, too, were of a character that contributed largely to the improvement and progress of the section in which he lived, and his commercial integrity was such as to win for him the unqualified confidence of all. The death of Mr. Dutton occurred in Nevada in 1891, when he was sixty-five years of age. He had for several years survived his wife, who passed away in Missouri Valley, in April, 1888, at the age of fifty-three years. Their children were six in number: Martha, the wife of David Leonard, a resident of Lake City, Iowa; O. E., living in Los Angeles, California; O. J., a banker of Grand Junction, Iowa; Jay G., of this review; Jeannette, the wife of Dr. F. H. Conner, of Nevada; and Omer B., who died at the age of sixteen years.
Jay G. Dutton was only four years of age when his parents came to Nevada and in the public schools of this city he began his education, which was continued after the removal of the family to Missouri Valley. In the latter place he made his initial step in business, becoming the first cashier of the First National Bank of Missouri Valley, which position he occupied for seven years, or until his removal from that place to Ferry, Iowa. His attention was then given to the lumber and grain trades and to the banking business for seven years, when he disposed of his interests there. He then returned to Nevada, where since 1897 he has continuously made his home. He came here with the intention of entering the banking business and purchased an interest in the Farmers Bank, of which he has since been the president. He is thoroughly familiar with every phase of banking and is conducting a business that safeguards the interests of depositors and also promotes the success of the institution. He is also the owner of extensive landed interests in this county and elsewhere, much of his capital having been placed in the safest of all investments–real estate.
In 1891 Mr. Dutton was united in marriage to Miss Lida Briggs, a native of Nevada and a daughter of Otis and Jennie Briggs. The father is now deceased, and the mother resides in Los Angeles, California. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Dutton have been born two children : Dorothy and Orson B.
The family are prominent in Nevada, the hospitality of the best homes being cordially extended them. As a citizen Mr. Dutton advocates and supports all those measures and movements which are of practical value in the upbuilding of the city along material, intellectual, social and moral